Human + : A Review of T.R. Hudson's "Automaton"

The Arbo Files

I am not a smart man. I am not a charming man (cue The Smiths). I am not even that great of a writer, let alone a good one.

However

I do have one skill, and that is the ability to recall things which others might characterize as “useless” or “unimportant.” Take for instance the fact that I can remember a cartoon from the Daily Worker, a filthy commie rag, mocking the jingoism of World War I. In the cartoon, a military recruiter dressed in Prussian or Russian finery inspects a new enlistee. The recruiter is overjoyed because he has finally found the perfect soldier. And what makes a perfect soldier according to Marxists? The answer: a beefy chest, thick arms, tree trunk-like legs, and a complete lack of brains.

The commie cartoon in question

The militaries of Europe and North America want mindless killing machines, the commies thought. This stance is no different than the grossly overrated comedian George Carlin’s quip about “military intelligence” being an oxymoron. And yet, I have to give the Reds their do—good soldiers often rely more on muscle memory and drills than unique thoughts, the latter of which often take too much time.

T.R. Hudson, a gem of a man and one helluva of writer, applies the mindless soldier trope in his debut novel, Automaton. Hudson weds this idea with more contemporary worries about transhumanism and the simultaneous rise of corporate oligarchy and anarcho-communism. As a result, Automaton is a science fiction novel with a philosophical core, and the philosophy in question is dreary. Like end of the world dreary.

Automaton is set in a post-civil war United States. The East Coast belongs to a major corporation-slash-private military contractor called Deluge, Inc. Deluge controls its very limited territory with a private army known colloquially as “Reps.” The Reps are responsible for retaking lost ground in places like Manhattan and Jersey City, while also conducting recruiting drives which are indistinguishable from slavecatching. Anyone capable of carrying a rifle is sucked up in the Rep dragnet. The West Coast, on the other hand, belongs to the Pacific States Republic, or PSR for short. The PSR is a kind of California kingdom run from San Francisco, and its ideals are a stew of progressive claptrap that sound awfully familiar in Anno 2022. In between these rival governments is the Midwest, which is a wasteland of famine and Canadian tourists.

The main character is Michael Connors, a Jersey City Irish boy who fought with the Marines during the invasion of Iran. While in the USMC, Michael, like his compatriots, underwent a mandated surgery that altered his brain. The surgery made Michael a Rep, short for “reptile.” The Reps of Deluge, Inc. can turn on a switch in their brains that makes them emotionless, tireless, and completely indifferent to pain and suffering. They are, in a sense, the perfect soldiers. The lucky ones have a phrase that allows them to deactivate. Michael has lost or unforgotten his phrase, so he is always “on.” This makes him a cold automaton, and yet he is far from the most dangerous character in the novel. That spot belongs to Donahue, a psychotic serial killer who demands sex and suffering from all genders. After he gets his rocks off, Donahue usually dispatches his partners in the most bloodthirsty way. He and Michael make an odd couple.

This odd couple is sent on a special mission by Mr. Mercer, the CEO of Deluge. Mercer wants his mercenaries to trek to California and the PSR in order to execute Sidney Posner, his former partner. Posner is a kind of mad scientist, Mercer tells his men, and he blames Posner for hacking the world’s banks and power grids, thereby creating the chaos necessary for America’s civil war. The two men agree to the mission, and, at the same time, Michael’s chair-bound mother gives him another. She asks that Michael, whom she no longer considers her son on account being a permanent Rep, go to the PSR and find his sister.

The ideas in Automaton are excellent. Cyborg soldiers with pharmaceutically enhanced brains. An America divided between competing ideologies. A main character described as everything from a machine to a Golem. Automaton also has incredible scenes, such as the discovery of a cannibal apartment block just outside of New York City. Another unforgettable passage is Donahue’s descent into actual love, and how his love, which is a tattooed prostitute, ends during a drone strike in Nebraska. Finally, Automaton is rife with interesting characters, such as the faux Austrian traveler and the drunk Amish man whose bits of blurred wisdom have an effect on Michael.

The weakness of Automaton is its extended middle passage. Michael and Donahue’s journey from Cleveland to the PSR has moments of tension, but is predominately a series of character studies and ruminations on the wasteland that was once America. The only suspense given is the possibility of Michael being discovered. Eventually this happens, but it is not important. A Deluge drone renders everything moot. The PSR caravan travels on without Michael.

The conclusion gets the juices flowing again. Michael comes face-to-face with Posner and one of his human-like robots, plus he discovers the whereabouts of his sister. And then the book abruptly ends. It seems to me that the point is that the story is not yet over, and that Automaton will have a sequel. If so, then I will buy it.

Automaton is a rough and unbalanced work, which is not surprising given that it is a first for the author. Still, Hudson does a splendid job of world-making, if only a little too much of it. The overall story is captivating, and Michael is a wonderful main character. Michael actually makes me a bit wheezy, as his cold, aloof, and awkward nature is meant to be relatable. After all, thanks to cellphones, 24-hour tech, and the deep interconnectedness of life to the Internet, we have all become automatons of one kind or another. Automaton is a testament to that reality. One prays that the novel’s other predictions do not come to pass. I do not want a future where I have to choose between Walmart with guns or an Amazon-run Stasi state.

Do yourself a favor; support this independent and dissident author today by buying Automaton. I’m sure it will lubricate your machine-like parts.